It is a general rule of photography that the more planning that’s done before a shoot, the more successful the end result. It is also true that no matter how much planning is done, one needs to be prepared for the unexpected…. And sometimes jobs come in with such short lead-time, that you just need to jump straight in and sort things out along the way. Last week proved to be an example of the latter.
Working for Indivior PLC, a world leader in the treatment of opioid addiction, we had to photograph the CEO and Chairman at a Surrey location first thing Tuesday morning, travel back into London to set up for an evening shoot involving a case study patient at a studio in Brixton, and then drive to Germany first thing Wednesday morning, to shoot Dr Patric Bialas, a physician based at the Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, Homburg on the Thursday.
The brief was to shoot everybody full length on a white background with matching lighting across the set. The images were to portray a sense of energy and personality of each subject and reflect natural, candid and relaxed poses.
With less than three days to pull everything together and with final locations and patient details still to come in, it wasn’t until Monday afternoon that everything finally appeared to be in place and we set off to deepest Surrey do a pre-light for the following morning.
After the planning and logistics, comes encouragement, persuasion and coercion. To persuade and coerce the chairman of a PLC to let his guard down and perform in front of the camera. To encourage a shy, reluctant patient to express a natural, candid confidence. Then finally, with Patric our German doctor…. Well sometimes you just luck out!
The images below are my selections that expressed the true personalities once the guard was dropped.
